Standard Banner: Surtr & Ceobe
The new Standard Banner features the following Operators:
Featured Operators:
| Rarity | Operator |
| 6★ |  Surtr - Arts Guard
 Ceobe - ST Caster
|
| 5★ |  Zima - Pioneer Vanguard
 Provence - Close Range Sniper
 Mr. Nothing - DP-Drain Specialist
|
- Based on previous patterns, it is likely but not 100% certain that the Operators for purchase in the Distinction store will be Ceobe and Provence
- 6★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 6★
- 5★ Rate-Ups have a 50% chance of appearing when pulling a 5★
Should You Pull?
Maybe.
I know—this banner looks like it should be a no-brainer for Surtr alone. Ceobe isn’t half bad either, though nowhere near Surtr’s level. However, the 5★s on display range from niche (Zima) to mediocre (Provence and Mr. Nothing).
This is a problem because the banner for Ch’en the Holungday should be coming up soon, and Ch’en the Holungday (aka Chalter) is just as broken as Surtr, if not moreso. Even worse, Chalter is limited: she can’t be purchased with a selector ticket and will never show up on a Standard Banner or in the yellow cert shop. If you care about the meta, you WILL need enough pulls to guarantee Chalter before pulling for anything else—even the ice cream goddess of fire.
Of course, if you have pulls to spare or don’t care about Chalter, Surtr is definitely worth pulling for. But even then, there’s another consideration: the Joint Operation 5 banner that comes with CC Season #7 also includes Surtr, along with three other 6★s that are arguably better than Ceobe. Joint Operation banners ONLY allow 5- and 6★s that are on the banner to be pulled, so players that are interested in Surtr should have another good shot at her in the reasonably near future, on a debatably better banner (depending on the player’s specific situation and roster).
As with all banners, a 5★ or higher Operator is guaranteed in the first 10 rolls. Should you pull for that? Definitely not. There is no reason to dedicate resources to pulling any of these 5★ units (other than waifu/ husbando reasons, which as we all know are the most important reasons of all).
Quick Overview
+ Ignores a flat amount of enemy RES when attacking (Talent 1)
+ When she takes fatal damage, she remains on the field for a few more seconds before retreating (Talent 2)
+ S1 massively increases the damage of her next attack and refreshes immediately if it kills the target; absolutely destroys weak enemies, since the Skill can refresh indefinitely
+ S2 increases ATK, attack range, and target count, with a further boost to ATK if hitting only one enemy, making it perfect for consistent ST or AOE damage
+ S3 is Armageddon in a cup, increasing Surtr’s ATK, attack range, and target count even more than S2 while also giving her +5000 HP (!). This is the Skill that makes her a legend.
+ Skills have VERY quick charge times
= S3 is PERMANENT once activated
- Archetype weaknesses: Block-1, high DP cost
- S3 constantly damages Surtr, up to 20% of her max HP per second, typically forcing her to retreat sooner or later
- If using S3 multiple times in a battle, Surtr’s increasing DP cost can become very expensive
+ E1 Talent combined with S2 (or S3 in very rare circumstances) make her an effective boss-killer
+ Great utility debuffs (S1 causes Bind, S3 seals special abilities)
+ Can change her target prioritization by using different Skills
+ Deals physical damage with S3, allowing her to pinch-hit against high-RES low-DEF enemies (can be useful for Challenges/ CC events)
+ S2 and S3 have surprisingly long durations
= Can be a better boss-killer and has more utility than Eyjafjalla, but lacks Eyja’s AoE damage
= E2 Talent is a nice damage boost, but the positioning requirements can’t always be met easily
- Has to choose between damage (S2) and utility (S1 or S3)
- S3 has a high SP cost
+ Terrific synergy with other Vanguards, between E2 Talent (Vanguard DP cost -1) and S2 (buffs all Vanguards and gives them +1 DP when killing an enemy)
+ Very durable; high DEF and HP for a Vanguard (and boosts her own DEF with S2)
- S2 is very strong, but it has terrible uptime
- Low ATK
+ When her Talent and Skills combine at the right time, her damage potential is insane
+ One of the few physical damage Snipers who has a chance of punching through high-DEF targets
- Her damage is highly conditional and can be tricky to maximize reliably
- For new players looking for Drone solutions, she does NOT prioritize flying targets
- High DP Cost, short attack range, and slightly slower Attack Speed than an Anti-Air Sniper
+ Usual archetype strengths: Good stats for his rarity, very low DP cost, quick redeploy timer
+ Talent empowers his next attack after not attacking for a few seconds, dealing bonus damage and Stunning the target
+ S1 passively gives him +1 Block
+ S1 passively gives him +1 Block and automatically activates when he is low on health; it prevents him from attacking or blocking and quickly recovers his HP, which also gives him a chance to charge his Talent
+ S2 is a permanent buff with a very fast charge time that gives Mr. Nothing an ATK buff and a random secondary buff:
- Mr. Nothing will debuff the ASPD of enemies he hits
- Mr. Nothing gains increased ASPD
- Mr. Nothing gains Physical Dodge and Block +1
- Usual archetype weaknesses: Consumes 3 DP every 3 seconds, essentially negating passive DP gain (and actively cutting into your DP pool on stages where DP regeneration is slowed)
- The HP threshold required to activate S1 is very low, so he might die without triggering the Skill if he’s hit hard enough
- The random nature of S2 can be very annoying; you won’t always have time to toggle through it to find the buff you want for a given situation
- S2’s ATK buff is not very high
Surtr
Surtr is a woman who takes the difficulty curve of Arknights and snaps it over her knee. Then she sets it on fire.
As an Arts Guard, she already deals a boatload of damage to most enemies; with her RES-reducing Talent, she does even more. Her Skills make that damage potential explode-nentially stronger. In fact, she may be one of the hardest-hitting Operators yet released in Arknights. Surtr can kill anything!—including, unfortunately, herself, since her S3 deals constant damage to her that virtually guarantees an eventual retreat. However, first it’ll trigger her E2 Talent, which keeps her on the field at 1 HP for several seconds no matter how much damage she’s taking. It gives her time to incinerate the last few targets before she heads to the bench to cool down.
I absolutely recommend pulling for Surtr, though perhaps not on this particular banner.
Ceobe
Ceobe is based on the three-headed Cerberus, and her flexible fighting style reflects this multi-directional inspiration. She is probably best known for her Thresher Talent, which deals bonus damage to her targets based on their DEF. Combined with the giant ASPD boost she gets from her S2, Ceobe can smear high-DEF elites and bosses across the nearest wall without breaking a sweat. On the other head—er, hand—her S3 deals Physical damage, giving her a way to work around high-RES enemies that other Casters might struggle to defeat.
Despite her considerable power, Ceobe is still outshone by other Arts DPS options, in particular the Queen of Casters Eyjafjalla. Eyjafjalla is better than Ceobe in general-purpose situations and for AoE damage, but let’s be clear, though: this is because Eyjafjalla is just that good, not because Ceobe is bad.
I don’t recommend pulling for or buying Ceobe, but she’s well worth raising if you pull her.
Zima
Zima is a strong Operator, but her power is more niche than Vanguards like Texas or Myrtle. Zima’s big selling point is the way she multiplies the effectiveness of other Vanguards. Her E2 Talent reduces their DP cost, helping you set up quickly at the start of a fight, and her S2 is a massive buffet of buffs (a buff-et, if you will!) that increases the ATK, DEF, and DP generation of all allied Vanguards.
When used alongside other Vanguards, Zima’s potency can add up to astounding levels. However, when only one Vanguard is needed or her buffs can’t be fully taken advantage of, then Zima can be quickly outclassed.
I don’t recommend pulling for Zima, but she’s worth raising if you like using multiple Vanguards as your frontline (she’s not necessary if you’re only using Vanguards for their DP generation).
Provence
Provence excels at hunting down weakened opponents and making sure they never come back to bother you. Her S1 passively increases her damage the lower her target’s HP falls, and her S2 gives her a massive ATK boost but causes her to only target enemies who have less than 80% HP remaining. Her Talent gives her attacks a chance to crit, and the chance increases dramatically when her target is at point-blank range in front of her. If you can bottleneck enemies into the square in front of Provence, her precise shots will decimate just about any target.
The main problem with Provence is that her DPS is very finicky. Enemies have to be positioned in the right place and be softened up by the right amount before Provence can really cut loose, and even then she still relies on RNG to activate her Talent for maximum damage. When everything is exactly to her liking, Provence punches through enemies like paper, but plenty of other units can pull off similar feats more reliably and with a lot less setup.
I don’t recommend pulling for or buying Provence.
Mr. Nothing
Mr. Nothing has a reputation at Rhodes Island for being able to do anything (except actual work) and you can see this in his S2, which grants him a random buff when activated and can be turned off again at will. Roll the dice as many times as you need to get the buff you want, then sit back and enjoy it for the rest of the fight!
Playing slots with Mr. Nothing’s S2 can be fun to pass the time, but it’s not the most efficient strategy. The ATK buff from the Skill is not hefty enough for Mr. Nothing to take down bulky enemies, and the randomized buffs he can receive—though a nice bonus—are rarely game-changers. In fact, considering how different they are, the three buffs are oddly interchangeable, rather than standing out with clear niches for different situations. Especially when compared to lower-rarity DP Drain Specialist Jaye, there’s just “nothing” this smooth-talking handyman brings to the table that justifies the DP drain from his archetype.
I don’t recommend pulling for Mr. Nothing (unless what you’re really pulling for is Junichi Suwabe’s sultry voice-acting).
